Adult Postabdomen, Immature Stages and Biology of Euryommatus Mariae Roger, 1856 (Coleoptera: Curculionidae: Conoderinae), a Legendary Weevil in Europe
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insects Article Adult Postabdomen, Immature Stages and Biology of Euryommatus mariae Roger, 1856 (Coleoptera: Curculionidae: Conoderinae), a Legendary Weevil in Europe Rafał Gosik 1,*, Marek Wanat 2 and Marek Bidas 3 1 Department of Zoology and Nature Protection, Institute of Biological Sciences, Maria Curie–Skłodowska University, Akademicka 19, 20-033 Lublin, Poland 2 Museum of Natural History, University of Wrocław, Sienkiewicza 21, 50-335 Wrocław, Poland; [email protected] 3 ul. Prosta 290 D/2, 25-385 Kielce, Poland; [email protected] * Correspondence: [email protected] Simple Summary: Euryommatus mariae is a legendary weevil species in Europe, first described in the 19th century and not collected through the 20th century. Though rediscovered in the 21st century at few localities in Poland, Austria, and Germany, it remains one of the rarest of European weevils, and its biology is unknown. We present the first descriptions of the larva and pupa of E. mariae, and confirm its saproxylic lifestyle. The differences and similarities between immatures of E. mariae and the genera Coryssomerus, Cylindrocopturus and Eulechriopus are discussed, and a list of larval characters common to all Conoderitae is given. The characters of adult postabdomen are described and illustrated for the first time for diagnostic purposes. Our study confirmed the unusual structure of the male endophallus, equipped with an extremely long ejaculatory duct enclosed in a peculiar fibrous conduit, not seen in other weevils. We hypothesize that the extraordinarily long Citation: Gosik, R.; Wanat, M.; Bidas, and spiral spermathecal duct is the female’s evolutionary response to the male’s extremely long M. Adult Postabdomen, Immature intromittent organ. Stages and Biology of Euryommatus mariae Roger, 1856 (Coleoptera: Abstract: The larva and pupa of the saproxylic Euryommatus mariae Roger, 1857, the weevil species Curculionidae: Conoderinae), a extremely rare in Europe, are described from Poland. It was reared from galleries in dead branches Legendary Weevil in Europe. Insects of a fallen spruce Picea abies. The larval morphology is compared with available larval descriptions of 2021, 12, 151. https://doi.org/ 10.3390/insects12020151 other genera of the supertribe Conoderitae, namely, the Palaearctic Coryssomerus, and the Nearctic Cylindrocopturus and Eulechriopus. The specific characters of the male and female postabdomen are Academic Editor: Paulo A. V. Borges described and illustrated, expressing the peculiar structure of endophallus and spermathecal duct, Received: 22 December 2020 not seen in any other weevil species. A hypothesis regarding the mechanics of mating in this species Accepted: 7 February 2021 is proposed. Euryommatus mariae is recorded for the first time to occur in China. Published: 11 February 2021 Keywords: beetles; weevils; Curculionoidea; Conoderitae; Coryssomerini; genital structures; larva; Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral pupa; saproxylic species; spruce with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affil- iations. 1. Introduction The subfamily Conoderinae, Schoenherr, 1833, formerly long known under the com- monly accepted junior name Zygopinae Lacordaire, 1866, has been quite recently applied, Copyright: © 2021 by the authors. as the oldest available name, to a much larger group of weevils, including the former sub- Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. families Baridinae, Ceutorhynchinae, and Orobitidinae, and nowadays comprises over 7500 This article is an open access article described species in 940 genera. The former four subfamilies were reduced in rank to su- distributed under the terms and pertribes, among which Conoderitae is the second largest, with approximately 2200 species conditions of the Creative Commons in 212 genera worldwide [1]. However, Conoderitae seems to be the least known taxonomi- Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// cally among the four conoderine supertribes, and the real number of extant species must be creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ several times higher. They are abundant and diverse in samples from rain forest canopies. 4.0/). Insects 2021, 12, 151. https://doi.org/10.3390/insects12020151 https://www.mdpi.com/journal/insects Insects 2021, 12, 151 2 of 22 For example, at least 520 species were counted during an inventory at La Selva Biological Station in Costa Rica by H. Hespenheide [2], the number updated to 559 species until 2009 (H. Hespenheide, personal communication). While common and hyperdiverse in tropical and subtropical zones, the group is highly under-represented in the Western Palaearctic, in fact by just a single tribe—Coryssomerini— with two genera and four species [3,4]. The strictly Western Palaearctic genus Coryssomerus consists of C. capucinus (Beck, 1817), widespread in Europe and the Caucasus, along with two much less well-known North African species. In the second genus, Euryommatus Roger, only its type species E. mariae Roger, 1857 was originally described from Europe, while eight further species currently attributed to Euryommatus live in Eastern Asia, Asia Minor or the Arabian Peninsula [3,4]. The only European species E. mariae ultimately turned out to be a Euro-Siberian element, relictual in Europe, but widely distributed throughout Siberia to the Russian Far East, eastern China (the first record here), the Korean Peninsula, and Japan [3–7]. In Europe, Euryommatus mariae has always been a mysterious and indeed legendary weevil. Described by Roger [8] from a locality at Rudy near Ku´zniaRaciborska (Upper Silesia—the type locality, now in Poland), it was not found again in Silesia or anywhere else in the whole of Poland for over a century. Subsequent records from Europe have been very scarce: All come from the 19th century and only from Austria (Salzburg vic.) [9], and Latvia [10]. The occurrence of E. mariae in Poland was finally confirmed after 140 years by Stachowiak [11], who collected a single specimen in the Białowieza˙ Primeval Forest (NE Poland). In the 21st century, the species has been found at several new localities in central Europe. In Poland, further specimens were collected in the Swi˛etokrzyskieMts´ in central Poland, near the village of Cisów [12]. Recently, the weevil was recorded in southern Bavaria in Germany [13]. At the same time, it was rediscovered in Austria, in the East Tyrol exclave [14]. Euryommatus mariae was also recorded in Slovenia, European part of Russia, and Cyprus in recent Palaearctic catalogs [3,4], but these country records are not supported with literature data. Moreover, the latter record is apparently a misidentification, since just an unidentified species of Euryommatus is listed from Cyprus in the recent catalog of Curculionoidea of this island [15]. The occurrence of E. mariae on this Mediterranean island seems rather unlikely. Unlike Coryssomerus capucinus, which develops on several herbaceous species of the Asteraceae, little is known about the host associations of Euryommatus mariae and its congeners. In Austria, it was beaten from ‘Pinus alba’ by Sartorius [9], and probably on this basis, Gerhardt [16,17] presumed its association with fir Abies alba Mill. In Siberia, it develops in dying branches of Abies sibirica Ledb. [18], but the adults were also collected from Pinus sylvestris L. (Legalov, personal communication). In Germany, the weevil was also collected from pine branches, albeit of Pinus mugo subsp. uncinata (DC.) Domin. In turn, all 28 Polish specimens of E. mariae, collected in the forest near Cisów, were obtained using spiral screen-trunk traps (‘Geolas’ trap) deployed on the trunks of spruce Picea abies (L.) H. Karst. This may indicate an oligophagous type of host association within the family Pinaceae. Being familiar with the former sampling area in Cisów, we undertook an investigation there to find immature stages of Euryommatus mariae in branches from a dead and fallen spruce Picea abies. Laboratory examination of these branches in March 2012 revealed a pupa, found by M. Bidas, who reared it to the adult. The site was revisited in the same month to obtain further material. Here, we give the first morphological description of the larva and pupa of E. mariae obtained from the above-mentioned spruce branches. The larval characters of Euryommatus are compared with available descriptions of some Nearctic species of Conoderitae, including the conifer-associated Cylindrocopturus furnissi Buchanan. 2. Materials and Methods The immature specimens used in this study: A premature (probably fourth) instar larva (one ex.), a mature larva (2 exx.), and pupae ( )(2 exx). All were collected from ♀ Insects 2021, 12, 151 3 of 22 one site: Cisów, forest district Daleszyce, forest comp. 144, 50.74N/20.86E, 264 m alt., 22.03.2012, branches cut from a fallen spruce trunk, leg. M. Wanat and M. Bidas. The larvae and pupae are deposited in the collections of the Department of Zoology and Nature Protection, Maria Curie-Skłodowska University (Lublin, Poland). The ten adult specimens examined are all from the collection of M. Wanat, stored at the Museum of Natural History, University of Wrocław: Poland: Swi˛etokrzyskieMts:´ Cisów, o. 144, UTM: DB82, 7–BMw G.Sw. 2, 29–31 VIII 2006, screen traps on spruce, 2 3 , leg. J. Borowski; same locality, reared ex dead spruce branches, imagines emerged 6 II♂ 2008♀ (1 ex.), 17 I 2012 (1 ex.), 1 III 2012, 1 , leg. M. Bidas. China (East): Harbin, 1 . Russia: W Siberia: Altai, Teletzkoe Lake, 12 VII♂ 1975, 1 1 , leg. F. I. Opanassenko. ♀ ♂ ♀ 2.1. Habitat The locality near Cisów